NATIONAL, HARBOR MARYLAND – Los Angeles Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts said Monday he expects a second helping of excellence from right-hander Kenta Maeda next year.
This past season, Maeda started 32 games and pitched 175-2/3 innings, while leading the National League West champions with 16 wins.
Maeda made a splash with an unusually long and incentive-laden contract with escalating incentive payments up to 32 starts and 200 innings. He came within $1.25 million (roughly ¥142 million) of maxing out all incentives in his debut season.
“He did (have some rough spots), but Kenta showed his competitiveness in his ability to adjust to major league baseball,” Roberts said at the baseball winter meetings.
“There were many times this season where he was hit by balls — off the hand or the arm or the shin — but he continued to pitch. He’s a lot tougher than he looked when we first got to know him.”
Although the Dodgers re-signed free agent lefty Rich Hill on Monday, Maeda remains a key component to the starting rotation as a right-hander in a primarily left-handed rotation.
Roberts led a team to the division championship that entered the season hindered by injuries. The NL Manager of the Year is counting on Maeda to get even stronger and deliver again.
“His biggest supporter is himself,” Roberts said. “I have a lot respect for Kenta and expect him to follow up this great year with another one.
“I think it’s just one of those things in the offseason, the strength training. We monitored him this year as far as usage. We expect him to make starts and be in the rotation, and be in the mix, and get us back to where we were this year.”
The upocming World Baseball Classic is in March just before the start of the regular season, and it is still uncertain whether Maeda — who was named to the 2013 all-tournament team — will be suiting up again.
The Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, Andrew Friedman, told Kyodo News he was unaware of Maeda’s decision regarding another Samurai Japan campaign.
“I haven’t heard anything,” Friedman said. “Have you?”
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